Facebook declared people prematurely dead. Were you one of them?

Despite being very much alive, users found their accounts switched to a “memorialized account,” reserved for the deceased, with the word “remembering” posted beside their name.

A statement reading: “We hope people who love Mark will find comfort in the things others share to remember and celebrate his life,” appeared on Mark Zuckerberg’s profile before being corrected.

Facebook provides a form to request the memorialization of accounts of the deceased. It requires documentation of a death, presumably to prevent people from triggering errant notices. If this option is selected, their profile will continue to exist, but only as a memorial. A logon is no longer available but people can post memorial messages to the deceased.

Many people woke up Thursday to find that their accounts had been memorialized and Facebook thought they were dead. I imagine that could be very scary for someone who’s still alive. The bug has now been fixed

To learn more about memorialization and what to do about other online accounts when someone dies, go to www.diesmart.com.